Gaming advice needed please - I know nothing!

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

19 hours ago, Finnegan said:

Izzy, just chiming in to repeat what a few others have said because it can't be stressed enough: under no circumstances is anything he claims you MUST buy him in Fortnite - or most other games - essential. He will lie to you because that's what children do and he will cry and throw tantrums because some of his mates will have conned their parents out of cash for aesthetic items in the game. Take our word for it when we say - do not bother.

 

This is a great opportunity to drum the value of money in to him.

 

The gaming industry is plagued by things called "microtransactions." Basically, mini sales within the game, usually just to buy cosmetic items that are designed to appeal to children who will rinse the cash out of their gullible parents. It's an absolutely shocking business model but it's profitable and so it's slowly taking over the gaming industry and it's ****ing evil. You are exactly the sort of person it's designed to exploit and your kid - who, lets be honest, is way too young to be playing a shooting game on the internet* - is exactly the little walking wallet they're banking on.

 

The OH's little nephew is the same age and he's caused wars in their household scamming his grandparents and even his sister out of cash to buy things in Fortnite and GTA and a bunch of other games he probably shouldn't even be on since he got xbox live at Christmas. He's a right little ****er n'all, he told my OH that he "had to have £20 for GTA otherwise he couldn't keep playing it" - he just wanted to buy some in-game dollars so he could have a bigger in-game house like his mates, it's ****ing carnage.

 

 

This is true, but I don't think it's fair to compare Epic's approach to other shady developers. Epic are very open that paying for the battle pass and cosmetic items doesn't benefit a player's ability at all, it's basically a "pay what you feel" model, which is great as they'll generate plenty of honest money from players who genuinely enjoy the game and want to put money into it, most knowing they won't actually get anything out of it except a few costumes and possibly a sense of satisfaction

 

Other developers (or publishers, probably) are trying desperately to palm off pay-to-win games as free-to-play, or offering paid items on a full-price competitive games to skew benefits towards people who pay more. There is something morally despicable about getting kids addicted to a game they've already paid for, and then putting the most powerful gun in what is essentially a virtual scratchcard you have to pay £2 for, with only a 1 in 50 chance of actually getting what you want

 

Konami have just released a new Metal Gear game, and you have to pay £10 (TEN POUNDS) to activate new save files if you want to start the game again without losing your progress. Why the fvck is that acceptable? Capcom release games with the "DLC" already on the disc, you've already paid for this content, but you have to pay extra to activate it. Ridiculous. Then you have the numerous mobile developers who release addictive puzzle games aimed at kids where the difficulty suddenly spikes and you have to pay £5 to get around an otherwise near-impossible challenge.

 

Epic have released a full game completely for free, and update it weekly. If you want to pay for the extra challenges and cosmetic stuff then you can, or you can just keep playing it for free, I think it's great and I hope other developers take note. It would be interesting to see what their profits are, cause about half the entire world is playing it at the moment

 

 

19 hours ago, Beliall said:

you never played against my ragey son then

Haha I can understand people getting rage if they get beat by a trap or someone camping with a rocket launcher but these are rare occurrences. I used to get really pissed off if I was getting thrashed at Call of Duty and a few other games, but never with Fortnite and when people are using their headsets they just tend to sound far more laid back than the idiots on other online shooters

 

Edited 21 March 2018 by Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo

[Izzy]

2 hours ago, Finnegan said:

Izzy, just chiming in to repeat what a few others have said because it can't be stressed enough: under no circumstances is anything he claims you MUST buy him in Fortnite - or most other games - essential. He will lie to you because that's what children do and he will cry and throw tantrums because some of his mates will have conned their parents out of cash for aesthetic items in the game. Take our word for it when we say - do not bother.

 

This is a great opportunity to drum the value of money in to him.

 

The gaming industry is plagued by things called "microtransactions." Basically, mini sales within the game, usually just to buy cosmetic items that are designed to appeal to children who will rinse the cash out of their gullible parents. It's an absolutely shocking business model but it's profitable and so it's slowly taking over the gaming industry and it's ****ing evil. You are exactly the sort of person it's designed to exploit and your kid - who, lets be honest, is way too young to be playing a shooting game on the internet* - is exactly the little walking wallet they're banking on.

 

The OH's little nephew is the same age and he's caused wars in their household scamming his grandparents and even his sister out of cash to buy things in Fortnite and GTA and a bunch of other games he probably shouldn't even be on since he got xbox live at Christmas. He's a right little ****er n'all, he told my OH that he "had to have £20 for GTA otherwise he couldn't keep playing it" - he just wanted to buy some in-game dollars so he could have a bigger in-game house like his mates, it's ****ing carnage.

 

*I'm well aware all his little mates are going to be on it and you've pretty much got to either let him play or be isolated, I don't mean it as a criticism of you - I don't have kids but I remember being one and not a lot has changed, lets be honest. The technology has just improved. I'd have wanted to be on xbox live at his age as well, although my parents were mean as **** and would rather I have been bullied in school than let me on.

The pisser is that I know you're right 

 

The problem is that I'm a soft touch 

 

When I was a kid I was bullied like fvck and was always a year behind when it came to fashion and trends. I remember one year when I was about 12, I turned up at school in my ASDA trousers and all the cool kids were wearing Farah's. I spend the next 12 months persuading my Mum to buy me some and eventually she caved in. So I turned up at school the next year in my Farah's and all the cool kids were now wearing Chino's 

 

I always swore that when I had kids of my own I wouldn't let that happen to them and now I'm facing exactly the same dilemmas my parents faced with me.

 

It will be interesting to see if you hold your nerve on stuff like this if/when you have kids mate 

 

[Guest]

14 hours ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

The pisser is that I know you're right 

 

The problem is that I'm a soft touch 

 

When I was a kid I was bullied like fvck and was always a year behind when it came to fashion and trends. I remember one year when I was about 12, I turned up at school in my ASDA trousers and all the cool kids were wearing Farah's. I spend the next 12 months persuading my Mum to buy me some and eventually she caved in. So I turned up at school the next year in my Farah's and all the cool kids were now wearing Chino's 

 

I always swore that when I had kids of my own I wouldn't let that happen to them and now I'm facing exactly the same dilemmas my parents faced with me.

 

It will be interesting to see if you hold your nerve on stuff like this if/when you have kids mate 

 

It's only money man. If you can afford it treat the kid. Go without a few tinnies and it's a win-win situation.

 

Soon your son will be grown up and have left home. You don't want to be the Dad wishing he'd been more generous. 

 

As for the online chat, put some trust in your son, I'm sure you've brought him up well, that trust will be repaid.

 

I went through it with my youngest and World of Warcraft, that cost far more but I don't regret it at all. I talked to him about the online people he befriended (or who befriended him) and then let him get on with it. He's now a well balanced sincere human being adult and we get along great. And he still plays online games and I even recently met a couple of parisians whom he'd played WOW with all those years ago.

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, FIF said:

It's only money man. If you can afford it treat the kid. Go without a few tinnies and it's a win-win situation.

 

Soon your son will be grown up and have left home. You don't want to be the Dad wishing he'd been more generous. 

 

As for the online chat, put some trust in your son, I'm sure you've brought him up well, that trust will be repaid.

 

I went through it with my youngest and World of Warcraft, that cost far more but I don't regret it at all. I talked to him about the online people he befriended (or who befriended him) and then let him get on with it. He's now a well balanced sincere human being adult and we get along great. And he still plays online games and I even recently met a couple of parisians whom he'd played WOW with all those years ago.

Cheers FIF. That's exactly how I feel about it 

[Manwell Pablo]

On 3/20/2018 at 21:33, Izzy Muzzett said:

The pisser is that I know you're right 

 

The problem is that I'm a soft touch 

 

When I was a kid I was bullied like fvck and was always a year behind when it came to fashion and trends. I remember one year when I was about 12, I turned up at school in my ASDA trousers and all the cool kids were wearing Farah's. I spend the next 12 months persuading my Mum to buy me some and eventually she caved in. So I turned up at school the next year in my Farah's and all the cool kids were now wearing Chino's 

 

I always swore that when I had kids of my own I wouldn't let that happen to them and now I'm facing exactly the same dilemmas my parents faced with me.

 

It will be interesting to see if you hold your nerve on stuff like this if/when you have kids mate 

 

 

I can 100% Guarantee neither of mine will see a penny out of me for Mircrotransactions. The only one's I've ever used are in FIFA (oddly accepted by people a lot more than other games even though they are essentially pay to win and not just cosmetic) and I stopped doing that years ago after the abuse of the whole model really started to take off. 

 

Maybe if they want to waste a Birthday or Christmas present on them that's their funereal but apart from that no way, shameless profiteering from a industry abandoning it's morals left right and center.

[Rusko187]

On 19/03/2018 at 22:54, Izzy Muzzett said:

First of all I'm mid forties and don't play games so go easy on me please 

 

My son is 9 and I'm noticing the peer pressure he's now under to keep up with the latest games. He's done Minecraft and Roadblox? but now it's all about something called Fortnite apparently? 

 

The wife is paranoid about all the on-line chat stuff so doesn't want him playing against other people but she's O.K. if it's just him and we keep an eye on him. He's got an old Amazon Kindle but apparently you can't get Fortnite on that?

 

I tried downloading it from the App store but it says our i-pad is not compatible FFS! It's old so I guess that also needs upgrading 

 

We've got a PS3 but apparently you can't get Fortnite on that either so we're now talking about having to upgrade that too!  

 

So the question is, do I get a PS4 or PS4 pro? or whatever the latest X-Box is?

 

I've no idea what's better so would appreciate your wisdom and advice please gamers 

For the purpose of what you will be using it for regular PS4 or PS4 slim will be more than sufficient, likewise for Xbox a regular Xbox one or Xbox one S. The Pro and X models are higher spec machines to give better frames and visuals but it's marginal and I'd be inclined to say you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

 

In terms of chat settings you can lock these in to be restrictive but I'm not sure how it's done. In terms of Fortnite it's an online competitive game with guns but it's comical violence so no blood or anything.. I'd say it's extremely child friendly but every parent is different. 

 

Both Xbox and Playstation are subscription based to play online but shopping around online you'll be able to get a better deal than what the console has on offer, Fortnite the game is free for the mode I suspect he will want to play which is the Battle Royale but there is a paid mode which I haven't seen anything on.

 

Hopefully I've answered all your questions but do feel free to get in touch if you want more info.

[Trav Le Bleu]

I love that you've downloaded Fortnite on your Mac.

 

I guess he'll love playing against all his mates on their Macs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or have I missed something and we now have cross-platform gaming? 

[Izzy]

1 hour ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I love that you've downloaded Fortnite on your Mac.

 

I guess he'll love playing against all his mates on their Macs.

 

Or have I missed something and we now have cross-platform gaming? 

See, this is what I don’t get.

 

When he played Roadblocks on the Mac it just seemed to be with a load of random strangers and we turned the chat/message facility off. My lad seemed quite happy wandering around the game doing whatever you do.

 

My understanding with this Fortnight is that you have to play with/against 100 other people every time . Well he’s popular but he hasn’t got 100 mates. It seems I have to ‘register’ for a game by email and then wait? I dunno...

 

I thought he could just play it in his own like he does Minecraft on the PS3 but I guess not. So if that means he needs an new x-box like his mates and they all have to be online at the same time then bollux to that.

 

Anyway, I don’t think he likes the ‘zombies’ bit as he’s only eight. I imagine it’s a 12 rating because of that?

[Beliall]

19 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

See, this is what I don’t get.

 

When he played Roadblocks on the Mac it just seemed to be with a load of random strangers and we turned the chat/message facility off. My lad seemed quite happy wandering around the game doing whatever you do.

 

My understanding with this Fortnight is that you have to play with/against 100 other people every time . Well he’s popular but he hasn’t got 100 mates. It seems I have to ‘register’ for a game by email and then wait? I dunno...

 

I thought he could just play it in his own like he does Minecraft on the PS3 but I guess not. So if that means he needs an new x-box like his mates and they all have to be online at the same time then bollux to that.

 

Anyway, I don’t think he likes the ‘zombies’ bit as he’s only eight. I imagine it’s a 12 rating because of that?

yeah mate we all have 100 mates who are online at the same time as us so we can play  

its online against randoms dude. and there is crossplay between xbox - pc and pc - ps4, but not xbox to ps4 because sony are idiots

[Trav Le Bleu]

47 minutes ago, Beliall said:

yeah mate we all have 100 mates who are online at the same time as us so we can play  

its online against randoms dude. and there is crossplay between xbox - pc and pc - ps4, but not xbox to ps4 because sony are idiots

Don't forget Mac-Switch crossplay.

[smallpauldj]

Tell your son he needs a ps2 instead with Leisure suit Larry magna cum laude  The hours I spent on this just going in and out of rooms just for the loading screens. So ahead of its time. Id love a ps4 version with the graphics capabilities we have today.

[Crinklyfox]

On 19/03/2018 at 22:54, Izzy Muzzett said:

First of all I'm mid forties and don't play games so go easy on me please 

 

My son is 9 and I'm noticing the peer pressure he's now under to keep up with the latest games. He's done Minecraft and Roadblox? but now it's all about something called Fortnite apparently? 

 

The wife is paranoid about all the on-line chat stuff so doesn't want him playing against other people but she's O.K. if it's just him and we keep an eye on him. He's got an old Amazon Kindle but apparently you can't get Fortnite on that?

 

I tried downloading it from the App store but it says our i-pad is not compatible FFS! It's old so I guess that also needs upgrading 

 

We've got a PS3 but apparently you can't get Fortnite on that either so we're now talking about having to upgrade that too!  

 

So the question is, do I get a PS4 or PS4 pro? or whatever the latest X-Box is?

 

I've no idea what's better so would appreciate your wisdom and advice please gamers 

Izzy both my children had consoles from a quite young age and it hasn't done them any harm.  One of them is still a gamer (he's now an adult) and plays most of his games online with other gamers, exclusively on the PC rather than a console.  When they were your son's age there weren't so many online games but it seems to be the norm now. 

 

There are a vast number of PC games available through something called Steam, it might be worth checking it out.  Otherwise the PS4 is a decent console.

 

Do you know what sort of games he likes?  There are different genres - racing games, beat-em-ups, role playing games, stealth games.  Some online RPGs can get so immersive that he could lose himself in them for hours - World of Warcraft was affectionately known by some as World of Warcrack.  He may come under some peer pressure to join up with his mates to form a team in some of these games so if you don't want this it may be best to air the subject before investing.

[Izzy]

5 minutes ago, Crinklyfox said:

Izzy both my children had consoles from a quite young age and it hasn't done them any harm.  One of them is still a gamer (he's now an adult) and plays most of his games online with other gamers, exclusively on the PC rather than a console.  When they were your son's age there weren't so many online games but it seems to be the norm now. 

 

There are a vast number of PC games available through something called Steam, it might be worth checking it out.  Otherwise the PS4 is a decent console.

 

Do you know what sort of games he likes?  There are different genres - racing games, beat-em-ups, role playing games, stealth games.  Some online RPGs can get so immersive that he could lose himself in them for hours - World of Warcraft was affectionately known by some as World of Warcrack.  He may come under some peer pressure to join up with his mates to form a team in some of these games so if you don't want this it may be best to air the subject before investing.

Thanks mate. 

 

The wife isn't keen on my lad having a console/TV in his room yet so if he wanted to play games on-line he'd be using the main TV and depriving her of watching Corrie 

 

I looked at PS4's and they seem quite decent value but the problem is that none of our PS3 games will work on it apparently! We might end up selling the PS3 and all the games/accessories for it on e-bay I imagine.

 

My boy seems to follow the crowd when it comes to gaming trends. First it was Minecraft, then it was Roadblocks and now it's Fortnite. I think I've found a short term solution by downloading it onto my i-phone 6 plus. He had a go on it yesterday while I watched and it seemed harmless enough. 

 

I know the time will come when he's sat in his room gaming all night, but he's only 8 and that seems too young at the moment to me. 

[Beliall]

8 minutes ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Thanks mate. 

 

The wife isn't keen on my lad having a console/TV in his room yet so if he wanted to play games on-line he'd be using the main TV and depriving her of watching Corrie 

 

I looked at PS4's and they seem quite decent value but the problem is that none of our PS3 games will work on it apparently! We might end up selling the PS3 and all the games/accessories for it on e-bay I imagine.

 

My boy seems to follow the crowd when it comes to gaming trends. First it was Minecraft, then it was Roadblocks and now it's Fortnite. I think I've found a short term solution by downloading it onto my i-phone 6 plus. He had a go on it yesterday while I watched and it seemed harmless enough. 

 

I know the time will come when he's sat in his room gaming all night, but he's only 8 and that seems too young at the moment to me. 

you're right there, my youngest son is ten, the main console has always been downstairs, we only allowed the wii upstaris. now the spare ps4 is in the boys room as our youngest child got her first console which is on the main screen.